Tabulating mechanism



H. A. FOOTHORAP.

TABULATING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION HLED AUG-22.1918

PatentedAug. 117, 1920.

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7 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HARRY ARTHUR FOOTHOBAP, F HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGIN'OR 'IO ELLIOTT-FISHER COMPANY, OF HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORA- 'IION OF DELAVIARE.

TABULATING MECHANISM.

flriginal application filed December 14, 1914, Serial No. 877,219. Divided and this application filed August Specification of Letters Patent.

22, 1918. Serial No. 250,996.

To all to hope it may concern:

Be it lrnown that I, IIARRY ARTHUR Foornonnr, citizen of the United States of America, residing at Harrisburg, in the county of Dauphin and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain. new and useful Improvements in 'labulating Mechanism, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to typewriting niachines and more particularly to a tabulat ing mechanism designed with special ret'en ence to the equipment of a typewriter oi the fiat platen type. r

The object out the invention is to provide a tabulating mechanism of a simple and ell'n cient construction adapted to be used either as a column tabulator or as a denominational or decimal. tabulator and which may be assembled in compact unitary strum ture capable oi bodily attachment to or detachment from the machine. I

Other objects will appear as the succeed.- ing description is developed.

Til the accompanying drawings:

Figure l is a plan view of a portion of the typewriter equipped with my tabuluting mechanism certain of the parts being broken away to facilitate the disclosure.

Fig. 2 is a detail view showing the manner of retaining the tabulator stop bar.

.Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3-8 oi Fig. 2.

Fig. 4r is a sectional view of the tabulator stop bar showing a tabulator stop in place thereon.

Fig. 5 is a detail view of one of the tahulator stops.

Typewriters of the character under con sideration include a line space frame 1 which moves longitudinally over a flat platen not shown, and supports a carriage 2 which is movable transversely of the platen on the frame. The specific charac ter of the frame and carriage, except as hereinafter mentioned. forms no part of the present invention and for that reason both are fragmentarily shown. F'luliicc it to say that the. frame 1 is equipped with a pair oi brackets 3 which support the opposite ends of a tabulator stop bar 4, disposed parallel with thecarriage in 1' thereof. One end of the bar 1- is receiver? in the seat 5 formed in a plate 6 secured to one of the brackets and the other end oi said bar is received 111 an upwardly opening seat 7 in a similar plate 8 secured to the other bracket 3. One end of the bar t is placed in the seat 5 by an endwise movement of the bar whose 0pposlte end is then dropped into the seat 7 where it is held against upward movement by a bar catch 9 pivotally mounted on the under side of the bar, as best shown in ljig. 2, and normally extended under a hired part, as for instance, the plate 8. The catch 9 may be swung from. under the plate when it is desired to detach the bar from the frame and when swung back under the frame to secure the bar is arrested in its holding position by a stop log 10 formed on the catch and engaging the bar 4. To retain the bar 4 rigidly against endwise moven'lent and also to afford slight endwise adjustment, thrust screws '1 11 are screwed through the brackets 3 and into impinging relation with the ends of the bar 4: and are held by lock screws 12.

The front edge of the stop bar 4 is provided with a graduated series of teeth 13 designed to be engaged by the teeth 14.- of the tabulatorstops 15, one of which is clearly shown in Figs. 1, 4, and 5. This stop 15 is preferably, though not necessarily, laminatedl, as shown in Fig. 5, and includes top and bottom plates 16 and 17, the former being extended to the rear edge oi? the bar i and. then bent to form a catch 16 which engages under an inclined face 18 formed by removing the lower rear corner oi the bar. This enables, a stop to be readily placed on the bar lin any desired position by inserting the teeth 14- in the teeth of the rack and then pressing down on the plate 16 until the catch thereof engages under the bar. The left hand faces (it the teeth 13 of the bar are straight since they sustain the thrust when the carriage is arrested and the tooth ll of the stops are correspondingly formed. The blade engaging portion. of the stop also has the r'orm of a tooth with one side straight and the other inclined so as to bring the stop within the limits of a letter space and i to aid in the retraction ()l a tahulator blade w1thout inplry 1n the event of the retraction of the carriage with a l de slightly dis.

shown) is mounted, includes in its organization a deck 19 which forms the bottom. of the casing'QO within which the key levers and other elements of the key connections are mounted. At the rear edge of this deck 19 and centrally located are a series of tabulatol stops or blades 21 which are normally in'non interfering relation with the tabulator stops 1?) but are designed to be moved rearwardly into such interfering or acting relation by the depression of suitable tabulator keys. Any number of these blades 21 may be provided but in the illustrated em-.

tions or variations of the illustrated structure as niay fall fairly within the scope of the protection prayed.

llaying described my invention, what I 1. In a tabulating mechanism. the combination with a frame having seats, of a tabulator stop bar having its ends extended into the seats and opposed to the f nine to prevent material endwise movement of the bar, one of said seats having an open side to permit the late al withdrawal of the bar therefrom and a catch retaining the bar against late :11 withdrawal from such open sided seat.

2. In a tabulating mechanism, the combination with a frame having oppositely disposed seats, one of which has an open side.

of atabulator bar having its ends extended into the seats and a catch retaining one end of the bar against lateral withdrawal from the open sided seat, and thrust screws mounted in the frame and bearing against opposite ends of the bar to elfect slight longitudinal adjustment of said bar and to retain the same. 1

3. The combination with a toothed tabulator bar and tabulator blades. said bar having its lower rear corner beveled, of a tabulator stop having a plurality of teeth to engage the toothed bar and. having a single tooth to engage the tabulator blades and a top plate having an angular portion engaged over the bar and bent t o form a catch engaging the beveled face oi -*said bar.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

HARRY Alt-THUR FOOTHORAP. \Vitnesses J. F. Cnnvnmvnnn, MAnsnALL H. DEAN. 

